"Among the natural rights of the Colonists are these: First, a right to life; Secondly, to liberty; Thirdly, to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can. These are evident branches of, rather than deductions from, the duty of self-preservation, commonly called the first law of nature."

-- Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists, The Report of the Committee of Correspondence to the Boston Town Meeting, Nov. 20, 1772

"I applaud the Court for recognizing that the State of Arizona has a right to expect its law enforcement officers to enforce the law. But I believe the Court erred greatly in its assertion that the other provisions of SB 1070 are unconstitutional, since those provisions simply mirror duly-passed laws enacted by Congress, in exercise of its exclusive Article One, Section 8 power to 'establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.'

'The right of self-preservation and self-protection is inherent in all persons, communities and societies...Liberty cannot be protected if the people have been stripped of the physical means of doing so.'

It also says:

'We completely oppose any action that surrenders the moral, political or economic sovereignty of the United States and its people, and demand the immediate restoration of that sovereignty wherever it has been eroded.

We demand the immediate securing and continuous vigilant maintenance of our sovereign territory and borders. We oppose any private or governmental action that rewards illegal entry into the United States in any way, and demand speedy and full enforcement of our laws concerning all such activities.'

I was one of the primary authors of those apt words, and I stand by them.

The United States Constitution guarantees each and every State in the Union protection from invasion.

Article Four, Section IV

'The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.'

The phrase 'the United States' is inclusive of the entire national government, in all of its branches, including the Supreme Court and the Congress. And in this most important regard the Chief Executive, the Commander-in-Chief, bears an especial responsibility. That is why, if elected as president, I will faithfully execute the laws of the United States, protect its people and sovereignty, and act forcefully to secure the States from all external or internal threats.

One of my first acts, if elected and sworn into office, will be to issue a presidential finding that the largely open southern border with Mexico constitutes a clear and present danger to the security of the United States. I will then exercise every power and resource available to the Commander-in-Chief to bring about a speedy end to that threat.

I stand with Samuel Adams and the Committees of Correspondence in their historic American assertion of the first law of nature.

I stand with the People of the United States in their God-given, unalienable, intrinsic, right to protect themselves from all external or internal threats to their safety, security, sovereignty, and liberty.

I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the governors and legislatures of the several States in their rightful expectation that the explicit terms of the Constitution be fulfilled, and that they be protected from invasion by tens of millions of foreign nationals.

I stand with the Constitution and the rule of law, and the sacred oath and solemn duty of every officer of government in this country, in every branch, and at every level, to support and defend them."

At the close of the Revolutionary War in 1783, George Washington wrote to the thirteen governors to disband the army and send his troops home. He included a prayer that God would “dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy” and love one another. This foundational prayer by our nation’s first leader for his soldiers and his people is worth remembering as we honor their costly sacrifices for the independence of our country.

Here is the full version of his letter to the Governors requesting that his troops be sent home:

Circular Letter Addressed to the Governors of all the States on the Disbanding of the Army, June 14, 1783

"I have thus freely declared what I wished to make known, before I surrendered up my public trust to those who committed it to me. The task is now accomplished. I now bid adieu to your Excellency, as the chief magistrate of your State, at the same time I bid a last farewell to the cares of office and all the employments of public life.

It remains, then, to be my final and only request that your Excellency will communicate these sentiments to your legislature at their next meeting, and that they may be considered the legacy of one, who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his country, and who, even in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the divine benediction on it.

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for brethren who have served in the field; and finally that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation."

"It has long, however, been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its expression ... that the germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal Judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one."

This website provided free of charge by Tom Hoefling, in exercise of his God-given, unalienable right to free political speech and freedom of the press, as guaranteed by the protections of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."